iKON Fans Declare War on the Band's Label, YG Entertainment

August 18,2017 01:25

According to the group's fans, YG Entertainment hasn't provided iKON with sufficient promotional opportunities in South Korea. The label has also repeatedly cancelled several performances as well as promotional stops in the country. Overall, iKON's ...

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According to the group’s fans, YG Entertainment hasn’t provided iKON with sufficient promotional opportunities in South Korea. The label has also repeatedly cancelled several performances as well as promotional stops in the country. Overall, iKON’s rabid fans thing the label is doing an awful job.The solution? Fans eventually decided to boycott the label until things changed. Now, the label has responded to the boycott, accusing fans of simply misunderstanding them.An image circulated on social media explains the motivation behind the boycott. Known as iKONICs, the group’s fans blasted YG Entertainment’s treatment of iKON as “continuously problematic.”According to iKONICs, YG Entertainment has forced the group’s members to work intense schedules that “didn’t consider their well-being.” As opposed to the group’s schedule in South Korea, iKON had an “incredible amount of overseas schedules.” The label has also continuously cancelled their promotional plans in the group’s home country. In addition, YG Entertainment has reportedly mismanaged iKON’s image.To address the issue, iKONICs sent an 18-page protest letter last month to YG Entertainment via fax, e-mail, physical mail, and SNS (social network service.) Fans stated that they “spent a lot of time and effort” on the letter. They demanded feedback from the label on August 11th.Once YG Entertainment received the letter, however, its CEO, Yang Hyun Suk, reportedly blasted iKON’s fans. Dismissing the letter altogether, he allegedly wrote,“Concerns about IKON are the most useless concerns! Just wait for September and October… The days we will laugh happily will come.”Following sharp criticism over the post, Yang Hyun Suk deleted his message two hours later. However, iKON’s fans were already “angry.” They also became upset over the group’s name stylization to IKON instead of the standard iKON.August 11th came and went, with the label reportedly offering no response. This led iKONICs to “boycott all YG goods,” including an iKON summertime DVD. Fans vowed to continue the boycott until they received “proper feedback from YG.”YG Entertainment has since responded to the allegations. They said that the issue stems from a misunderstanding. A spokesperson said,

“This has occurred from a misunderstanding. iKON released a new single album in May of this year, and they are continuously preparing for a new album and have plans to meet domestic fans often.”

“Recently, iKON members individually appeared on MBC’s ‘Oppa’s Thoughts’ and SBS’s ‘Fantastic Duo’ and will also soon appear on SBS’s ‘Law of the Jungle.’ The iKON members are also steadily pursuing individual activities.”

You can read the complete (translated) letter below.

“We are iKONIC, the fandom to YG Entertainment’s artist iKON. After iKON debuted on September 15, 2015, YG Entertainment’s treatment of iKON has been continuously problematic.“Among many other issues, the members had intense schedules that did not consider their well-being; they had an incredible amount of overseas schedules compared to their incredibly few Korean schedules; their promotional plans were continuously cancelled; their image management was non-existent; and their styling was not improved. We spent a lot of time and effort from June 17 to July 20 to prepare an 18-page protest, and we sent this to YG Entertainment through fax, email, physical mail, and SNS. We requested feedback until August 11, and we have been waiting for a sincere answer to our protest.“However, on July 30, YG Entertainment’s CEO Yang Hyun Suk uploaded a shocking three-line post on his SNS. He wrote, ‘Concerns about IKON are the most useless concerns! Just wait for September and October… The days we will laugh happily will come’. When we iKONICs saw his post, we couldn’t help but laugh emptily. A sincere protest that we spent about a month on was dismissed as ‘useless concerns’, and he talked about September and October, where iKON are scheduled for back-to-back performances for their Japanese tour. We couldn’t help but be angry at calling those days, ones ‘we would laugh happily’.“Not only so, he made the most basic mistake of stylizing iKON into IKON, and nothing about the answer was proper. The post was deleted two hours later, and we did not get feedback on August 11… iKONICs tried to think of the artist and the label’s image and tried to solve things in a friendly way, but the label denied us that. We have decided to boycott all YG goods, incuding the ‘iKON SUMMERTIME SEASON 2 in BALI’ DVD that will be released on August 23.”“We will continue this boycott until we get a proper feedback from YG.”